Festival orchestra

The Presteigne Festival has featured its own orchestra since 1989. This year as before it consists of young professional and post-graduate student players from all over the United Kingdom who are given hospitality in Presteigne over the festival period. The orchestra has a reputation for first class performance standards and since 1989 has covered a major part of the chamber orchestra repertoire, having also premiered works by Michael Berkeley, James Francis Brown, Joe Duddell, David Matthews, John McCabe, Cecilia McDowall, Rhian Samuel, Hilary Tann, Adrian Williams, Graham Williams, Ian Wilson and Hugh Wood.

Players from previous years have taken up appointments with such orchestras as the Royal Opera House Covent Garden, Halle, BBC Symphony, BBC National Orchestra of Wales, BBC Philharmonic, London Philharmonic, London Symphony, Philharmonia, Royal Philharmonic, Bournemouth Symphony, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, Scottish Chamber, Northern Sinfonia, Ulster, English Chamber Orchestra, National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland and the Hong Kong Philharmonic.

The Festival Orchestra is also a particularly fine accompanying ensemble and soloists have included Jennifer Bate, Anthony Marwood, John McCabe, Anne Queffelec, Anthony Goldstone, Raphael Wallfisch, Tasmin Little, Gordon Fergus-Thompson, Ashildur Haraldsdottir, Richard Watkins, Nicholas Daniel and Krzysztof Smietana. The Presteigne Festival is honoured to be able to present three concerts a year from such a talented and dedicated group of young musicians.